Thoughts from a life well wasted

Top 5 Movies of 2014

Like everyone else, I am finishing up the year with easy to make lists. There were quite a few movies this year that I liked, but I don’t know that there were any that I really loved. There were a lot of good movies, but not a lot of great ones, maybe just the top three.

Before I get to the Top 5 I do have some Honorable Mentions, the movie that I would have had on the list if I’d done ten instead of five. I just didn’t think I saw ten really good movies this year. I could probably make a better top ten list out of films I wanted to see but couldn’t because I live in the middle of nowhere. If you include my honorable mentions, this list hits nine. The Lego Movie didn’t quite make the top five, but that may be because I saw it so long ago. It was fun and funny, but slight. The same goes for Big Hero 6, which I liked just a touch less than the Lego Movie. X-Men: Days of Future Past was also really good, if a touch cluttered. First Class hasn’t really stuck with me, but DoFP managed to merge the good of that movie with all the good stuff from the first two X-Men. And last is Muppets Most Wanted, which until a couple of days ago was the last movie on my list. It is just pure fun through and through.

5) Captain America: The Winter Soldier – Marvel might have had their best year of movies this last year. Captain America 2 is the closest any of the Marvel Studios films have been to being more than just pop ephemera, but it is still just a superhero movie, though a supremely fun one.

4) Godzilla – This could not be more different from the last time that an American company handled the King of the Monsters. It is a Godzilla movie that is not ashamed to be a Godzilla movie. It makes you wait to see the monster, but it really pays off one the big guy shows up.

3) The Hobbit: Battle of the Five Armies – Peter Jackson’s last trip to Middle Earth is not the strongest of his movies, it might actually be the weakest, but it is still a damn good time. Though there are some baffling choices made in the adapting and editing.

2) Interstellar – This is undoubtedly the best movie on this list. This movie truly deserves to be called epic, spanning across space and time, but is truly human at its heart. Ultimately, this is a film about a the relationship between a father and his daughter.

1) Guardians of the Galaxy – While Captain America moved a bit away from being pure pop, but Guardians of the Galaxy embraces being nothing but pop. It is Star Wars as a superhero movie, but all the characters are Han Solo. I can’t imagine having more fun in the theater than I did with this movie.